1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a case for storing and retrieving a disk such as an optical compact disk and accompanying printed material. More particularly, the invention relates to a compact disk case (CD case) from which the disk can be extracted using only one hand without opening the lid, although the case can be made out of a single part.
2. Brief Description of the Existing Art
In the decade, compact optical disks have been gradually replacing vinyl disks for the recording of audio material and are currently used for storing and reading various types of digital information including video material. Therefore, enormous quantities of recorded or bare compact optical disks are produced and used in different fields of application and must be properly protected and identified using a storage case. Generally, a rigid three part clear plastic case is used for that purpose. Such CD cases are made from brittle plastic material such styrene and present mechanical weaknesses so that cases are frequently damaged by manipulation or dropping and must be replaced. Furthermore, such an accident as dropping the case with a CD inside can result in also damaging the enclosed CD itself as it is sometimes projected outside of the case falling apart.
Numerous types of CD cases have been proposed in the prior art in a attempt to improve the mechanical resistance of CD cases and facilitate their manipulation. However, most designs turn out to be complex, comprise too many parts, are costly and above all, they often fail to comply with the established critical dimensional industrial standards and consequently would not fit in standard racks and carrying cases. Indeed, most alternate concepts of the prior art are unable to match the standard case""s width that exceeds disks diameter by only a few millimeters.
The known concepts presenting the most interest are providing a mechanism that enables pulling out the disk from the case without opening the lid, thus making manipulation easier and reducing the risk of dropping the case and/or the disk. However, most (if not all) of the known concepts do not allow to insert the accompanying printed material provided with CDs.
Examples, such compact disk cases, are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,369, granted to Philosophe in 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,875, granted to Bribach in 1995, U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,031 granted to Uchida in 1997 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,216 granted to Nesbitt et al in 1997.
Philosophe teaches a storage container for records or the like, comprising a manually pulled drawer-like receptacle containing the record and a mechanically assembled lid. The costly concept involves at least three moulded moving parts and complex manipulation to pull-out the record and replace it in the container. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,875 describes an optical disk accommodation device provided with a spring loaded drawer and a mechanically assembled lid. The spring mechanism enables removal and insertion of the disk with a single hand but implies additional parts and costs. Moreover, the overall width of the device exceeds disk diameter too much to fit in standard racks and carrying cases. The lid assembly characterizing both of these concepts also involves weak rigid plastic tabs and pins susceptible to breakage.
Bribach teaches an assembled pocket for holding and protecting a compact disk, which comprises a live hinge lid. The closed pocket has an open side and movement of the disk on the direction of said open side is restricted by two locking protrusions disposed about the peripheral boundary of the disk, spaced from each other by a distance lightly less than the diameter of the disk and located slightly passed its central axis. The disk can be pulled by hand against the friction applied by the locking protrusions, which requires both hands for disk removal even in the lateral sliding mode (lid closed). Protrusions are subjected to substantial wear since no mechanical compliance is provided and again the overall width of the pocket significantly exceeds that of standard CD case.
The Nesbitt patent presents a concept enabling removal of disk through a side opening in the case using a single hand, but without a sliding drawer. Movement of the disk in the direction of the slot is prevented by two protrusions as in Bribach, except that each of said protrusions is mounted on a compliant arm provided with a tab. In the basic embodiment, compression of the compliant members by the fingers of one hand of a user causes protrusions to space apart and free the disk. Downward tilting of the case then enables dropping of the disk off the case by gravity. Nevertheless, that concept again comprises at least three molded plastic parts, an assembled lid with weak parts and can not respect the width limitation of standard existing cases, given the large protrusion bearing arms extending over the periphery of the disk.
There is thus a need for an improved CD case featuring high mechanical strength and low cost, while enabling one hand operation and complying with width standards established by CD cases currently existing on the market.
The present invention provides a case for the storage of optical compact disks which overcomes the limitations and drawbacks of the above mentioned solutions of the prior art, and more specifically:
a first object of he present invention is to provide compact disk storage case comprising a single part;
a second object of the present invention is to provide, compact disk storage case that can be manufactured economically by plastic molding;
a third object of the present invention is to provide compact disk storage case featuring high mechanical strength and low susceptibility to impact breakage;
a fourth object of he present invention is to provide compact disk storage case enabling extraction of the disk from a slot on a side thereof using a single hand;
a fifth object of he present invention is to provide compact disk storage case comprising lid and base portions in which accompanying printed material can be inserted, retained or removed; and
a sixth object of he present invention is to provide, compact disk storage case featuring an overall width not exceeding that of existing cases, so to ensure compatibility with existing racks and caddies.
More specifically, in accordance with the invention as broadly claimed, there is provided a compact disk storage case comprising a base portion receiving a compact disk having a diameter, and a lid portion connected to the base portion through at least one live hinge. The case can advantageously comprise a single part that can be obtained by molding of compliant plastic material such as polypropylene. Both the base and the lid comprise integral tabs for retaining printed material. When the lid is closed over the base portion, a narrow elongated slot is formed in a side wall of the case, from which the disk can be inserted in the case or removed therefrom without opening the lid portion.
The disk is normally retained into the base portion by a three point stop system constituted by a back wall, substantially orthogonal to the plane of the base portion, engaging a first point of the disk periphery opposed to the slotted side of the case, and two tab mounted locking protrusions having a distance between the protrusions slightly less than the diameter of the disk and located slightly more than half of said diameter from the back wall, thus limiting the movement of the disk toward the slotted side of the case.
A second pair of tabs located on the lid portion is aligned with corresponding protrusion provided tabs of the base portion when the lid is in a closed position. The mechanical relationship between the lid portion tabs and the base portion tabs is such that applying a lateral pressure on a lid tab causes the corresponding base tab to bend into an orthogonal direction with respect to the base plane, which in turn disengages the associated protrusion from the disk periphery. Simultaneously pressing both top portion tabs, which can be accomplished by synchronous action of the thumb and a finger of a same hand of a user, thus makes the disk free to move in the direction of the case slotted side. Simultaneously orienting the case with the slotted side facing downward then causes the disk to exit the case under the action of the force of gravity.